![]() ![]() ![]() (A retired cop from Adamson's burglary division named Dennis Farina wound up playing his old boss on the show.) A still from writer-director Michael Mann's 1995 film "Heat." (Courtesy Warner Brothers/Photofest)Īccording to legend, back in 1963, Adamson was tailing a prolific bank robber named Neil McCauley, and when spotted, he invited the felon out for a cup of coffee. Former police sergeant Chuck Adamson served as a technical advisor on Mann’s first film, and together the two created the regrettably short-lived TV serial “Crime Story,” based on Adamson’s exploits as head of Chicago’s Major Crimes Unit in the 1960s. In features such as “Thief” and “Manhunter,” and through television shows like “Miami Vice,” the filmmaker obsessively reworked and refined tales of obsessed cops tracking smooth criminals. “Heat” represented the culmination of more than two decades of crime stories by writer-director Mann. Then we talked about it all the way home.ĭudes love to talk about “Heat.” I often joke that the film - which screens Monday night at the Coolidge Corner Theatre as part of their Big Screen Classics series - has been watched on more black leather couches in man caves than any other movie except maybe “The Godfather” or “Goodfellas.” Starring Pacino as a high-strung detective obsessed with bringing down De Niro’s methodical master thief, it’s an intricately plotted, 170-minute cat-and-mouse game with over 70 speaking roles and at least two of the decade’s defining action set-pieces. Afterwards we retired to the bar next door and talked about the movie until the lights came on at 4 a.m. Indeed, one of my fondest filmgoing memories is going to see a late show on opening night in New York City with some college buddies. (It opened in third place, behind “Jumanji” and “Toy Story.”) The film received no Oscar nominations nor any year-end critics’ awards, and yet for a generation of young men the movie - which featured the first onscreen face-off between Method acting titans Al Pacino and Robert De Niro - was an event bordering on the sacramental. Michael Mann’s sprawling Los Angeles crime saga “Heat” premiered in December of 1995 to respectful reviews and decent, if unspectacular, box office numbers. ![]() Robert De Niro as master thief Neil McCauley in Michael Mann's 1995 film "Heat." (Courtesy Warner Brothers/Photofest) This article is more than 2 years old. ![]()
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